Froome secures Tour of Oman win

Chris Froome has won the Tour of Oman for the second successive year after successfully negotiating Sunday's final stage in Muscat.

Froome encountered no problems and, having established his lead with a solo run in Saturday's stage five, stayed safely out of harm's way in a busy sprint finish at the Matrah Corniche, which was won by Andre Greipal.

Froome is now keen to build on a strong start to his 2014, which will likely feature the defence of his Tour de France title.

"At the end it was really tricky because we knew we had to be in a good position and not risk any significant time splits, but we achieved what we set out to achieve," Froome told teamsky.com. "To get the overall victory was a nice reward for everyone.

"I still feel like I have got a lot of work to do - a lot of room for improvement - but at this stage in the season, I'm where I need to be. This has been a really good experience for me as it is the start of my build up to the Tour de France."

Elsewhere, Omega-Pharma rider Mark Cavendish enjoyed his first successful sprint finish of the new season with final stage victory at the Volta ao Algarve. Team-mate Michal Kwiatkowski was the overall winner.